Wyncroft Wine

Wyncroft Wine is one of the more serious small-production names in Southwest Michigan: a family-owned estate winery founded in 1998 in the glacial moraine hills near Pullman, within the Lake Michigan Shore and Fennville appellations. Jim Lester, winemaker and co-owner, has spent more than 30 years growing vines and making wine in Michigan, and the program reflects that long view. Production stays under 2,000 cases annually, vineyard and cellar work are done by hand, and the focus is firmly on European vinifera varieties rather than sweeter crowd-pleasers.

The wines lean classical and site-specific. Estate bottlings include Pinot Noir from five estate clones, the Bordeaux-style Shou blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, and Shou Blanc, a Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blend from LePage Estate. Wyncroft also works with a few carefully chosen vineyard sources for wines like Gabrielow Vineyard Chardonnay, Blaufrankisch from Glacier’s Edge Vineyard in Howell, and dry Riesling from Shawnee Vineyard in Berrien County. Quantities can be tiny, sometimes just a few dozen cases, so this is a winery travelers usually seek out on purpose rather than stumble into.

Visiting Wyncroft is closer to a private winery visit than a casual tasting-room stop. There is no standard public tasting room; visits are by appointment at the gated estate, generally in the warmer months, with tours through the vineyard trails and an outdoor tasting of five wines paired with local bread and cheese. Groups are kept small, and the whole experience is built around time with the person making it.